Thursday, August 13, 2009

#1 Song of the Week

This week in 1968 was the first week at #1 for the group formerly known as the Young Rascals and their third #1 song "People Got To Be Free".
They had persuaded their record label to let them drop the "Young" and just be "The Rascals" for the new album and single so they wouldnt sound like a group of little kids on the playground.
Previously hitting #1 with "Good Lovin" 1966 and "Groovin" 1967, this would be the last time the Rascals would top the Billboard Hot 100 and it was the most emotional song lead singer Felix Cavaliere had written. He was deeply affected, as was much of America, by the assasinations of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy just 6 weeks earlier. "People Got To Be Free" entered the charts July 20th and 4 months later sat alone at the top for 4 weeks.

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